Over the past several years our laboratory has been involved in the development of new chelating agents of potential utility for patients who suffer from beta-thalessemia major. One of the classes of compounds that has proven to be effective in vitro and vivo are derivatives of 2,3, dihydroxybenzoic acid. We have synthesized a number of derivatives and the compound which separates the 2,3 DHB moieties by alpha, omega diamino hexane has proven to be the most effective. Further pharmacological and toxicological studies will be performed in the coming year and hopefully clinical evaluation will be possible. In addition a number of derivatives of multi dentate hydroxamic acid molecules linked to cholic acid structure are being synthesized and will be evaluated. In addition to this synthetic program further work will be carried out on the isolation and identification of a low molecular weight iron chelating agent found in mammalian tissues. Hopefully the structural identification of this compound will allow us to embark on the design of new agents.